Partners in Crime
by Fangurrrl
Summary: Day meets a strange girl out on the streets of LA and questions about her past. They run into each other accidentally, and everything changes. This is my first fic, so it's probably really terrible. Rated T in case.
1. Chapter 1

DAY

I watch her as she leaps carelessly from building to building. Strong, yet exuding grace. This girl's as agile as any other republic soldier I've come across. I look in amazement as she pulls out a hacked gun; no doubt stolen and filled with tranq darts, and takes down seventeen guards using seventeen shots. Amazing.

"Day." Tess is calling, but I'm still watching as she easily makes her way into a building and slips back into the shadows. I stare at the window she went into, but nothing moves.

"Day!" I jump, and Tess shoots me an irritated glance.

"Oh, sorry." I respond, and Tess just rolls her eyes.

"ANYWAY, before you were ever-so-distracted from the Girl," She teases, and I groan. "I finished prepping our plans, and I found this." She opens her palm to reveal a necklace. The chain is long and golden, while the pendant itself is a long crystal point; a dark purple stone.

I'm instantly mesmerized and I pick it up, examining it and its imperfections.

"Where'd you find this?"

"When you were busy admiring the Girl," She says coyly, "I went down from the roof to go gather some supplies. Food, ammo, the works, and I just found it, lying on the ground." She shrugged. "I don't know if it's worth much."

I give it to Tess. "Here, keep it." I stand up. "I gotta go get ready. Be careful, Tess."

"YOU be careful, Day." Her eyes fill with sorrow and worry.

"Wait for me in the Area, I'll be done in about three hours." She knows where I'm talking about. "And bring some of the supplies, too."

I hop down gracefully and with ease down the rooftop, and slip on my gear.

Black leather everywhere. A jacket, dark grey army pants, and thick boots. I have six knives hidden on me: Two sheathed at the waist.

Am I ready?

Why not.

I charge into the store, antique wines; expensive liquors.

Burlap sack at the ready, and I stand, right in front of a ton of wealthy folks, all in the middle of buying their goddy damn juices. I move quickly, grabbing the nearest person next to me. Little old man looking at the merlots.

"Everybody freeze!" They listen. Didn't expect some street con to break in on them, did they? I point at the cash register, and I can feel the man sweating and panicking.

"Move, and this here gentlemen dies." I flash the gleam of my knife under his chin. Nobody knows I'm not cracked enough to actually kill him.

"Give me everything in that register." The clerk follows my orders, young and inexperienced, barely legal to work in a booze shop.

"Here you go, sir." The cashier mumbles, his fear obvious. I smirk. Some republic notes sit on the countertop, where he pushed them to. Good enough.

I grab them, stuffing them into my pockets and my sack.

"Get me the most expensive crap you sell." The clerk hesitates, and bites his lip.

"Do it!" I yell, and the man sucks in a breath. I shove the sack towards him and he takes it reluctantly.

I look up, sensing movement. In the air vent, is the Girl. She sees me look at her, and her eyes widen, but nonetheless, pushes her way through and jumps down, people scream. She holds out knives, to let people know she's armed, but doesn't try to hurt anyone. She looks around. Her eyes, are a shade of dark brown, but not dark enough so that you can still make out her pupils. They're cold yet regretful, like she feels bad robbing a liquor store, even if it's full of selfish aristocrats. I can feel her aura of despair, anger, and other attitudes that are quite admirible. She's dressed like me: In dark colors, but very, very silent.

"How-what…" I manage to choke out. The man under my arm is looking quite bewildered, too.

"How'd you get in here?" I ask her, but she says nothing.

She takes more notes, tucked away safely under the counter, hidden so I and cons like me wouldn't find them, and tosses half the stash to me.

"What's your name?" Nothing.

She looks at me, an emotion flashes across her eyes, but it passes by so fast I can't quite make it out. Pity?

"Hey, thanks." She stays silent, taking a thick wad of notes for herself. She climbs back up to the vent, looks back and says,

"No problem." And makes her way out.

The original break-in resumes.

The clerk turns back to me.

"What are you waiting for? Get the goods!" I yell irritably.

With his hands up, he moves nervously to a reserved shelf, carefully picking out specific wines and champagnes.

Aged, all VERY expensive, each probably worth more than my old house. He puts them in my bag with the best of care, and then, walks over to me and puts the bag on the floor next to my feet.

"Think fast." I whisper to the man I'm holding hostage, I shove him forward, fling the front door open, and run as fast as I can. Inside the shop, commotion is breaking out. There's yelling and screaming, and even crying.

Rich folks don't arm themselves so well around these parts, and I make my getaway easily and safely.

Soon, the sound of footsteps fade away into the darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

~Soon, the sound of footsteps fade away into the darkness~

 _The Girl._

I keep dragging the sack, even though my back is aching.

 _In the usual spot….._

Just a couple more blocks…

It feels like hours, even though it's only been minutes. It's hard to believe that people haven't woken up and started screaming, or that the street police patrolling haven't filled up my body with lead. But then again, it's a rather deserted area.

I hear someone call my name.

Tess?

Yeah, it's Tess, I drop the sack, carefully on an old mattress.

"Hey, cousin. I got the loot." I say weakly, and collapse exhaustedly next to the burlap bag.

"Look at you!" Tess scans me with worry. "You're drenched in sweat!" Sweet Tess fawns over me some more, pulling some supplies out of the bag she brought.

She dabs gently on my forehead with a washcloth, muttering about the latest crazy stunts I pulled. "Making out with…..stealing…..starting fights…." I just sit there acting as innocent as possible. Only a couple years ago she was left out on the streets to die, leaving for me to carry her weight. Now, it feels as if our roles are reversed.

"Hey." She stops.

"You know, something weird happened back at the store." I chew on my lip, and brace for Tess's expression.

"What was it?"

"The Girl. She was there. She gave me half the stash of cash she managed to find." I drag over the bag, and show Tess the amount of money.

"Woah." She widens her eyes and stares. "She was there? That never happens." Tess peers inside the bag.

"Yeah. She just split it and took off." I shrug. "We have some time here, before we take off again. Only a couple more hundred notes for a cure." I think of John, and how hard he's trying to support Mom and Eden.

 _Eden._

Is he okay? It's been about a week every since we landed back in this sector, poor and nearly deserted. Only goddy rich folks go here to buy bootleg alcohol.

 _The plague is running around in the sectors nearby._

Suddenly, Tess breaks the awkward silence.

"Why-why would she do that? Take some cash, and run away?" Tess ponders, leaning against a brick wall. The wall is covered in faded graffiti and old scratches and such.

"I don't know." I lean up against her. "We'll leave Shoa sector. Go back to Lake, okay?"

"Okay."

We sit next to each other, on the stained mattress, leaning against the brick wall for the rest of the night.

Tess doesn't say anything, and neither do I.


	3. AN (Please Skip)

THIS IS A QUICK AUTHORS NOTE!

Feel free to skip these if you'd like.

Well, this is my first fanfiction, and after years of reading other fanfics, I finally

got up the power to post my first fic.

At the beginning, I thought it would be a PJO or a Warcraft one, (Weird combination, but somehow I fangirl in both.)

But instead, I went to "Legend."

And wrote a fic.

Yeah.

This A/N was pretty darn useless.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Me and Tess both woke up around noon, when we were safe in the shade of the tall buildings as the sun poured down generously. We're almost completely drenched by the rain last night, which for a showered generously for a fair amount of hours.

We were cold, wet, and grumpy at the time.

Tess yawned. "Let's get up, sleepyhead." She had said, 'Are you hungry? I'm hungry."

Later, we found ourselves munching on some old waffles scoured out of an old restaurant dumpster. Oh, the luxuries of life.

"This is okay, right?" She looks at me with her large, brown eyes.

I just shrug. "It's not that bad." We munch on our old waffles in silence for a couple minutes. For some reason, it's not awkward. With Tess, it never is.

"Where are you going to find someone who was a cure? The black market is tough these days." Tess finishes her waffle and throws the plastic plate back into the dumpster. Wipes her mouth, and climbs down from the pile of old blankets she had been lounging on.

"I don't know. Maybe I can find someone, and soon." I crumple my foam plate and chuck it at the wall. "Hey, we betting on skiz fights today, cousin?"

Tess smiles at me as we walk out of the alley. "You bet."

We walk in the hot LA weather, past several shops and cafes, even a couple of bars with dark interiors and who knows what going on inside of them.

The cafes have drinks and pastries that smell delicious and despite our breakfast, it leaves me craving.

 _Pitiful. You're worrying about baked goods while you're family is at stake?_

I try to focus all my attention on the hot summer pavements, the buildings that have vines snaking up onto the telephone wires, the the very few JumboTrons that are displaying the latest of news. I scan them. Nothing important.

Poor and middle-class citizens are walking lazily along the roads, and a couple times we pass a puddle left over by the rain last night or a moped zooming by.

"Hey, look! A market!" Tess jumps up and giddily skips over the a large crowd of people and their items. I groan, and look down, attempting to hide my face. Should have gotten some disguise going on earlier.

People are shouting out prices in the market, selling foods and goods, so Tess and I stop to admire a couple of things.

Tess eyes the books and the girly things. Jewelry, clothes, stuff like that.  
I trail over to the shady areas, where some suspicious-looking characters are lounging around.

"Excuse me, do you know where I can find the nearest, source of entertainment?" I heavily accent the "source of entertainment" part as I talk to a woman who has a scar running down one eye, heavy eyeliner, and hair that's bright crimson. When she looks another way I can see part of her head is shaved.

"Who are you? A fed? A narc?" She looks at me with distaste.

"Naw, cousin." I laugh. "I'm just a street con back from Lake, trying to get some fun out this here visit." I wink at her, and despite her tough and intimidating facade, she blushes and shoots me a flirty look.

"Well, then, mind telling me where that fight's gonna take place?"

The girl flips her hair, which gleams in the sunlight.

"Corner of Rinoma and Tea. It's a big crowd, out back of the Palm Tree bar, can't be more than five minutes away from here." She grins at me, plum lips closed, but I can see the mischief in her violet eyes.

"Thanks, cousin. I'll see you around." I return the smile, and she turns around.

I glance over my shoulder, and see Tess deeply immersed in a book. I squint.

 _War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy._ It's a big book, and VERY old. Probably also VERY boring.

I rush over to her, but she doesn't even see me. She likes books THAT much.

"Come on, Tess. We have to go." I urge.

"Hmm?" She responds, her eyes still focused on the pages of the book.

"Street patrol is coming soon, if the police finds us, it's over!" Over the top, but it's true. At three pm, I learned that the Republic's little lap dogs come and poke around.

"Just…..five more minutes." I give a frustrated huff.  
"Tess!" She jumps, snapping the big book shut.

"Right, right…..ah, sorry. Le-let's go." We hurry off to where the crimson-haired girl told us to go, but as we leave…..

I see a familiar lock of inky black hair, but when I blink, it's gone.

 _The Girl?_

 _Could it be?_

What's she doing here in a flea market? Shouldn't she be cashing in her goods for a disguise and start living the life of luxury?

No, I have to be mistaken. It couldn't have been her.

I search around, but I find nothing.

She's gone.


	5. Chapter 4

AN: Well, this is a short one, I was "running out of time."  
Anyway, HUGE thanks to DJ, who gave me awesome ideas and hilarious things that I laughed about through skype.

You are forever awesome, forever the Queen of Sass.

CHAPTER 4

Whooping. Cheering. That's all I here.

"Day?" Tess clings on to me, scared. These fights are way different from the ones back in Lake. More blood, less mercy.

"It's okay, just hold on to me. Don't get lost." I reassure her as I pull out a thick wad of notes from my jacket pocket. "This should be enough for a couple of bets." We make our way to the front, cheering street cons are the only ones in the crowd, other than us. They look scarier than they did back home; scars, battle wounds, mean expressions. A little girl and a teenage boy seems out of place. When we shove our way past grumbling strangers, we see the people fighting out on the "arena." A woman wearing red and black is fighting a small girl, who can't be older than 14. She has long, brown hair innocently tied back in a ponytail, and she looks scared. I watch the girl, who has shockingly white hair cut into a pixie cut, lash out and strike the other girl across the face, leaving a nasty mark. She wavers, and falls down. The white haired girl stands up and helps move her to the side, then gets ready for the next fight.

"Isn't she something?" We hear a voice, and turn around. The girl from the market is here, and she smiles wickedly: Red hair meeting brown, it glints in the sun.

"It's you. What are you doing here?"

"Don't you know? I'm little Miss Winter's fight manager." She nods towards the the champion. Winter is now brawling against a big, burly ex-con, and cleanly knocks him out, using accuracy and stealth. Unlike Kaede, back in Lake, she doesn't focus on strength during her fighting.

"Taking all bets! All bets!"

"How's it going, Kyara." I can hear more betters greeting their most favorite brawl dealer as she takes their money. She passes by us again, and we place our bet on Winter. The next guy goes down easily, in less than a minute. Pitiful. We collect our winnings and decide to move on. Next bet is coming on soon, I see out of the corner of my eye Winter takes a thin stack of notes.

Right before I walked away, I saw the black hair again.

The Girl.

She's here.


	6. Chapter 5

AN: This Fanfiction is dedicated to you, sweet, dear, lovely DJ. My Queen of Sass who gives me my ideas, the one who is an enormous inspiration to me. Thank you so much, otherwise there would be no fic and there would be no creativity left in my soul. Thank you.

-Author

-Now, here's the chapter I hadn't bothered to post for a long time:

Chapter Five

I observe her as she soundlessly moves through the crowd, no doubt pulling out a wad of cash from the store we held up. Her face is utterly emotionless, unpredictable. The woman taking the bets sizes her up, but admits her money and nods. The Girl silently slips away, back into the crowd that conceals her secrets. I open my mouth and begin to say something, but Tess seizes me and pulls me back, out of the ring.

"Thanks, cousin." Tess nods.

The woman in the ring is facing off a young man, no doubt some sort of kid from the richer sectors, thinking he can win a fight against Winter.

Winter kicks him in the kidney.

He wheezes, then falls. A couple of people help him out of the ring, and back onto his feet. I snicker.

It takes less than thirty seconds for Winter to be declared the winner, and the crowd goes up in cheers. Kyara hands out the notes and Winter prepares for her next fight, unlike Kaede, who would have just went in for it.

"Well then." I see a girl with shocking blue hair, cut at the shoulders. There are various piercings on her face, moving as she sneers at Winter.

"Alma." Winter calmly replies, standing up casually, eyes soft as ever. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, precious." Alma snaps. She makes her way to the front of the crowd, shoving past Tess and I. "You finally make it to the top, huh? Making the big bucks?" She bares her teeth and grinds her jaw. "I call a rematch."

The crowd gasps, but Winter keeps her calm composure. Her eyes, unlike Alma's, show no signs of hostility or hatred. Kyara looks ready to jump in any time. "You think you're better than her?" She yells. "I doubt it, sweetheart. How 'bout you go back to that goddy slum and never show you-"  
"Kyara." Winter raises her voice, but just a smidge. Kyara stops. "It's fine. Alma, if you want a rematch, so be it."

Alma smirks, but it doesn't reach her eyes. Kyara glumly begins to take more bets. "Here you go." Tess trembles as she fearfully hands her money to Kyara again. To our surprise, she smiles are warm as she can towards us, and keeps going. Huh.

Winter waits for Alma patiently to make her first move, and Alma lunged towards Winter, malice and mischief now replacing a look of toughness, and tries to claw her opponent. The other woman steps aside and twists Alma's hand, flipping her over. Unfortunately, Alma twists out of her grasp, midnight blue hair swishing around, and throws a punch, which Winter blocks just in time, and returns it with a swift kick. Alma goes down, and lies limp for a short period of time, but soon gets up and sprints toward Winter. Her opponent stands ready, but receives a sharp blow to her stomach. Winter gasps, as does the crowd, and falls to the ground, face filled with surprise, replacing her usual airy lightness. Alma smiles a victorious and fearful grin, and throws down a curved dagger. Kyara is too stunned to be angry for the money loss, and begins to deal again. Winter screams in pain, and blood stained the pavement. Kyara begins to rush over and help.  
"Are you okay? Oh, lord, we need an ambulance." She frantically searches around her. "What are you doing! Get some bandages!" She yelled at the crowd, who tosses her a roll. Winter's purple eyes are wide with fear, her shockingly white hair seeming dull even in the light of the sun. Kyara managed to wrap the bandages around Winter's torso, instantly staining with red the second fabric met skin.

Alma just smirked, and the knife used was coated with blood, glittering steel flashing dangerously. Alma lazily stalked around the circle of her crowd, searching for a new victim.

Meanwhile, Kyara desperately whispered to Winter, who was lying on the ground nearby, waiting for help to arrive.

Tess inches back as Alma begins to approach our relative location, the champion smirking and surveying all of us.

"It's okay." I whisper. "She won't choose you."

This bitch of a cheater chooses Tess.  
"You. The runty one." Alma says in a voice without any warmth at all. Only signs of, "I will beat your tiny pathetic ass" and it bakes my blood boil.

What kind of champion would choose a little girl to face off?

"M-me?" Tess manages to squeak out, even though we both know she heard.

"Yeah, you. Who d'ya think I was pointing at? Some other skinny wimp?" He harsh words make Tess flinch, and she gives me the most scared of eyes I've ever seen. I can almost hear her thoughts from here.

 _Help me, save me, do anything. Please._

I ignore her silent pleas, and try to act as calm as possible, eyeing Alma and her coal black eyes.

I'm running out of time.

"Well then, come on out _little girl,_ " She emphasizes those words to make sure the crowd knows how weak and defenseless Tess is. She's not. "Let's go play a little, huh?" Tess shoots me a terrified expression.

"Ha. Choosing little mice for a big, bad cat, huh?" I turn and see the Girl, standing ready and looking confident. "Too bad you can only fight prey half your size."

It surely angers Alma, as her cruel coal eyes flare and she yells,

"Oh, think you're better? Ooh, sorry to break it sweetheart but…"

The Girl shrugs. "I'm bored, it's getting late. Let's make this quick.

Alma flips her curved fang of a knife wickedly, and signals for The Girl to come into the ring.

"Well." She smiles in a chilling way. "This sure is a nice way to spend an afternoon."


	7. Thank Chu 3

Woah, when I first wrote this fic I thought, "Well I sure am going to get flames."

And It's been over a month, and would ya look at that: No flames.

Now, I don't want to make Fanfiction my own personal diary, I have my blog to do that on so I better get on with it.

I now have six reviews. None of which include any sort of flame-y material. In fact, they are all positive and encouraging so to the people who bothered to read my fanfiction: Thank you so very much for giving my story a chance.

And of course, m'lady Queen DJ of Sass, for being up super-late so I could sit in my closet being angsty with you.

Thank you all for your support.


	8. Chapter 6

DAY

I grip the handle of the knife, hard, as I watch the angry crowd of malicious gamblers all turn on the Girl like some hungry tigers on a little bird. Pitiful. I begin to stomp over to where they're standing and give them a piece of my mind but Tess stops me.

"Please." She gazes at me, with her pleading green eyes. "Don't do this, Day. I don't want you getting hurt."

I sigh, blowing out some air. "Fine." Reluctantly, I take a step back and stay with her. Subjected to watch the Girl get hurt.

I watch as all the gamblers turn on the Girl, demanding their money back, making threats, shoving each other around and yelling at one another. The Girl still doesn't seem the least bit scared. Or unshaken.

Then I see Alma make her way to the front, and strike the Girl with a blade. She stumbles back, blood sprays and hits a wave of the mob.

I lunge at them all and hear Tess scream my name, but I don't care.

The Girl retaliates and uses the hilt of the knife to strike Alma back, and she falls to the ground, as The Girl approaches with Alma's second knife. Alma can't even get herself up from the ground. Seeing the most vicious, malicious, fighters helpless is truly motivational.

I fight my way through the crowd, watching The Girl along the way.

The Girl stands before Alma, truly victorious among the one who refuses defeat.

"You couldn't have just left me alone and admitted your defeat. Pitiful. How egotistical." The Girl sighs. Alma sends up a weak glare.

"Shut the hell up. What do you know"

The Girl lets out a bitter laugh, and flips the blade's edge around, gleaming at Alma's throat.

"Your attitude is still persistent as ever. Clearly, more than you could ever comprehend. Well, see you later. You're really not worth my time." The Girl glares at the mob, who all cower at her stare.

"All of you. Best be leaving now."

The Girl leaves.

Or tries to.

Alma slowly rises from her spot of defeat from the asphalt, slowly draws yet another, sneakily hidden knife carefully, and swiftly slashes The Girl's retreating back.

I freeze, we all do. We're all holding our breath and now waiting for the worst.

 _Alma is a goddy idiot._

The Girl stops in her tracks, straightens her back as a brand-new gash begins to form through her shirt. We can all see drops of menacing crimson escaping the wound, dripping unsteadily down her back, onto the ground.

The Girl slowly turns to face Alma, smiling as if _she_ was the one who had gotten the last laugh.

Suddenly, we all hear a thud.

Alma's bloody, bruised, down-played ego-containing head hits the rocky pavement, clearly unconscious.

"Wh-what happened?" Tess gasped. "Is-is she okay?"  
"Who cares? Let's get out of here." I whisper, and we begin to sneak our way out of the crowd.

Evidently, the rest of the people around us don't have the same quiet humility and dignity.

The mob advances, too many people for the Girl to focus on at once. I see her head wildly whipping around, trying her hardest to survive.

"We want our money!"

"I won the fight, fairly! Get away from me!" She yells, grabbing a hidden knife and slashing expertly yet wildly at any approaching enemy. Soon enough, they would overpower and get their money back, by all incredibly low and nasty ways possible.

I was given an option: Either let the wolves get to the highly aggressive but incredibly outnumbered sheep, or suffer a severe maiming that I might never wake up from.

The answer was quite obvious after I watched The Girl knock out several teeth off a gambler.

I surge towards everyone, Tess begins to follow.

"No!" I roared over the commotion. "You. Stay. Away! Get back to somewhere safe! I'll meet you there!" My directions thankfully got through to her and Tess sprinted away.

Now all I have to do is fight a horde of angry criminals to defend the one individual that everyone is rioting against.

Oh, what a fine afternoon.

A note from the "author."

I'm supposing you all hate these.

Eh, oh well. They must be left.

Thanks so much to the one individual that left some very helpful thoughts, and I'm still sorry if my chapters are too short. I haven't updated to the story for a long time and I was just thought it would be best.

Also, another reason to contribute to the _overall suckiness_ of the story is the very narrow vocabulary I have, which you've hopefully and probably noticed.

Any suggestions, comments, or thoughts are appreciated.

Leave flames is that will satisfy you, but they will be deleted. (Can I do that?) As they serve no purpose for improvement.


	9. Chapter 7

I really don't see how I can survive this fight AND keep all of my organs intact. From the looks of it, I'm already bidding my left kidney a fine goodbye.

I'm fighting the angry crowd, pushing and shoving and holding a hand over where my left kidney is.

"Ah! Leave me alone!" Is nearly completely tuned out by all the shoes on the pavement and person against person and shouts against shouts.

I flinch when I see the gleams of blades being pulled out menacingly and flashing and pointing towards one direction: where The Girl is standing, holding back everyone who wishes to take her life. I tell you, it doesn't look easy.

Once I advance closer, I see two freshly made cuts on her forehead and left cheek, oozing a red and beginning to trickle down slowly, but she doesn't care. Blood mixes with sweat as she gets more tired and exhausted. She's about to lose.

Alma has already fled the scene, afraid of any police that dare show up to a riot this big. What a goddy coward.

The Girl's twin blades are coated with blood, the sight and smell of it wafting over makes me flinch, but I delve deeper into the crowd. I can see the sweat dripping off and glistening in the light of the setting sun. I'm almost there.

The people fall back only the slightest, wary of her and her two knives. Finally, I'm here at the front, and the riot's front line is fighting back with their own weapons. Cuts and gashes and scratches form on the Girl's skin: So violent and clear I could have seen it from the back of the riot.

I fumble for a smoke bomb in my pockets. It's got to be around here somewhere… Ah! My fingers close around the little homemade ball of fun and I yank it out of it's home. It's a tad linty but it'll do…

Pushing past more and more people, I run right up to the Girl.

"Cover your face." I order. She looks bewildered but does as I say, burying her face in the crook of her neck.

I manage to also find a match, (thank goodness), strike it against the sole of my shoe, and light the smoke bomb, throwing it onto the ground before the riot as hard as I can.

Dust and smoke erupts. Yells, people blindly reaching and tripping all over themselves and others.

"Come on, let's go!" I grab her hand; she looks stunned, and I yell through the uproar for Tess, and together we run away from the entire ugly ordeal, up into our little safe haven, like cowards.

When we reach there, she shoots us both a weird look, and looks like she's about to take off. The Girl gives us a slight nod, a sign of appreciation, and when her back is turned and looks like she's ready to pounce onto the roof of another building, I call for her to stop.

"Wait!"

She halts.  
"Stay with us. Just for the night, in case someone comes looking for us or one of those guys from the fight comes back. We have food, if you need it?"  
Who am I kidding, requesting a professional...what, assassin? To come live with us on the streets? For a minute I want to laugh at myself.

But instead of rejection like I expected, she shrugs and says, "Sure, why not?"

And that's how I came to be here, sitting next to an armed and dangerous stranger in whom I have invited to eat dinner with.

Life sure is fascinating, isn't it?

The next hour we all binge on stolen sandwiches and street vendor food that I nicked when the vendors themselves were too distracted to notice. When we're done, I decide to start some conversation.

"So, I don't know your name yet."  
"It won't be necessary."

"I'll need to call you by something, I can't just go on referring to you as 'Girl,' you know."

She furrows her brow. I wait until I get a response.  
"It's irrelevant, really. I don't know why you need it as I'm going to be leaving quite soon." My heart falls, surprisingly, at her response. For some reason, I don't want this individual to leave. I don't want this stranger, very well capable of murdering, to leave. All I'm getting from her is an aura of coldness and hidden rage.

I smile at her, she glares aggressively.  
"You can call me Sylvanas."  
I laugh.

"I take it that's not your real name?"  
"Not even close."  
She turns towards Tess, her hard, mean expression has now softened a little.

"What about you, what's your name?"  
Tess, having nothing to hide, responds honestly.

"How old are you, Tess?" Tess hesitates to glance at me.

"She's thirteen." I tell her. Sylvanas nods.

She reaches behind her, and pulls out her two knives, along with Alma's, which is covered in blood. When Tess sees it, she flinches and so do I. For a minute I think she's about to kill us right here in the alley, but she begins to wipe the blood off the metal with a rag.

"I remember when I was thirteen, Tess. I had just cashed this huge payout: slit the throat of this, fancy Republic government trot. I was young, foolish, naive back then, and I was stupid enough to fall into a trap a couple months later."

She points to the scar on her neck.

"They tried to blow me up. When that didn't work, they tried to shoot me with a long-range crossbow. When _that_ didn't work, they just sent some street con to go at me with a knife."  
She leans in close, so close that I can see all her scars and the vicious glint of bloodthirst in her eyes: They mirror all the hatred and malice and spite in the world, and at the same time, look impossibly broken.

"Don't grow up."

She backs away to lean against the wall again, but grimaces in what appears to be pain.

"Were you stabbed?" Tess butts in, staring at the dark spot on her shirt.

"So I was." The Girl replies simply, and she falls back against the wall once again.

I curse out loud, and catch a glimpse of the small pool of the blood that has been falling onto the ground. Tess rummages around for some bandages, and I take a bottle of water out from our supplies.

I peel back the black cloth of her shirt so I can see the wound: It's a nasty gash, but it doesn't look like it'll get infected. I take the water and run it over the cut, washing it clean of the dried blood that's been caking the edges. The blood that was on Alma's blade must have belonged to Sylvanas. I leave Tess to do the rest: Carefully bandaging it and in a matter of minutes her midsection is covered in gauze.

Later that night, when Tess is asleep on my folded vest, I see that Sylvanas is still awake, casually still watching the night pass by, but at the same time still alert as if someone would jump out from behind the building and ambush us.

I go to sit down next to her.

"Bad day?"  
"You don't know half of it."  
I chuckle.

"Well, you were stabbed."  
"Feels better already. Thanks to Tess over here."

We sit in awkward silence for a couple of minutes.

I see a rather deep, contrasting scar on the back of her left hand, and point at it.

"Where'd you get that?"

She snorts, and smiles bitterly.  
"Small gift from a drunkard in a bar. Got into a fight with him, left victorious."

When she looks at me, I realize that there's a scar that crosses her cheek in a horizontal line.

"What about the one on your face, sweetheart?"  
"Republic soldier after the explosion, recognized me in public, and just jumped at me. "

My eyes linger to the "X" scar crossing neatly over the skin of her chest, but before I can ask about it, I'm interrupted.

"I could finish telling you to stories of how I got my scars by the time we're eighty, you know, so I guess let's just call it a night."

WARNING: THIS AN IS LONG

*Sorry for that shameless, shameless, SHAMELESS World of Warcraft reference. If you didn't know, "Sylvanas" is the name of a major character and she's fantastic.

My stream of inspiration has just been…..dormant and not quite completely dead yet. So I'd really appreciate it if anyone wanted to message me because they have an idea that could be incorporated. All suggestions will be read and responded to, so no Guests.

Also, if you have any additional ideas unrelated to this story you'd like to read, send me a message. For example, prompted one shots, angsty au, themed lemon, (Direct Example: Day feels really lonely and gets a cat.) will all be considered. It doesn't have to be too specific or detailed just in depth enough for me to understand and base writing off it.


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